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Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) age at death estimates: new methods and modern reference data for tooth eruption and wear, and for epiphyseal fusion.

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Tomé C. & Vigne J.-D. (2003)
Archaeofauna - International Journal of Archaeozoology
Madrid : UAM éd.; vol. 12 : 157-173

Abstract :

Three different methods have been both used and tested in order to improve available reference data for the determination of the skeletal age of West European roe deer (Capreolus capreolus): molariform tooth eruption, substitution and wear (scoring procedure), cheek tooth crown height measurements, and fusion of both cranial and postcranial bones. We have sampled mandibles from individuals (N = 62 + 26) of very precisely known ages (± 1 to 4 weeks) out of two controlled game populations in the Paris basin (France). Epiphyseal ages have been established on another sample of 196 complete skeletons, coming from a third area in the Paris Basin, and aged on the bases of teeth with reference to the two first samples.

For tooth ages, the observation of eruption, substitution and tooth wear appeared to be a method more accurate than the crown height measurements. It allowed ageing with ± 1 month accuracy for individuals less than 2 years old. We give tables for both the evolution of the morphologies of the wear area of individual cheek teeth wear, and for individual (isolated teeth) and total (mandible) scores. Comparisons with yet published references show slight discrepancies, mainly due to weak accuracy of most of the previous methods. A first time, we propose a table for bone epiphysation of the roe deer.

KEY WORDS: ROE DEER, CAPREOLUS CAPREOLUS, SKELETAL CHRONOLOGY, ERUPTION AND TOOTH WEAR, EPIPHYSEAL FUSION, ARCHAEOZOOLOGY.